2013-2014 Prospect Stats and Discussion - Part 2 - Updated March 25th

We seriously don't have a single right-handed defenseman in our system? How is that even possible? Also, anyone know anything about Erik Gustafsson? 18 points in 42 games in SHL and +5. Haven't actually heard anything about him ever. Is he coming over anytime soon? What's his ceiling?

We seriously don't have a single right-handed defenseman in our system? How is that even possible? Also, anyone know anything about Erik Gustafsson? 18 points in 42 games in SHL and +5. Haven't actually heard anything about him ever. Is he coming over anytime soon? What's his ceiling?

Fedun is the only rightie.

Gustafsson has another year on his contract in Sweden. I'm guessing he has an out-clause, but I'm guessing he'll play over there until the end of the contract.

What??? The only reason Simpson comes up even is because of contract status... other wise we would keep him and let the D slot machine come up as it does... Laleggia is one of the best puck movers in the entire NCAA (13th among all skaters in points in NCHC)... no sense in trading a maybe future Brian Rafalski...

speaking of the NCHC... goalie Lukas Hafner has a 1.86 GAA and 0.928 SV% for WMU... 22 years old... 6'1 205 lbs... could be a good goalie to sign in the summer as a free agent

What??? The only reason Simpson comes up even is because of contract status... other wise we would keep him and let the D slot machine come up as it does... Laleggia is one of the best puck movers in the entire NCAA (13th among all skaters in points in NCHC)... no sense in trading a maybe future Brian Rafalski...

speaking of the NCHC... goalie Lukas Hafner has a 1.86 GAA and 0.928 SV% for WMU... 22 years old... 6'1 205 lbs... could be a good goalie to sign in the summer as a free agent

Hafner could definitely be a possibility.

It's probably safe to assume someone in the organization has seen a good amount of him since I'm guessing someone is keeping tabs on Kenney Morrison who also plays for WMU.

He was the defenseman the team brought to developmental camp at the beginning of the season and basically did all but sign him.

Zona's overall negative evaluation of Oilers prospects using NHLE is somewhat misguided given that a lot of the forwards drafted were not drafted to be top 6 guys so their NHLE for a bottom 6 role is actually decent. Also there are a number of forwards and defensemen who are in their first year pro or their first year in a tougher league so their NHLE would be expected to be lower than other more experienced players in their respective leagues. Not to mention there are a bunch of players in there who are expected to shut down other teams' top lines and are performing well in that capacity. Clearly some players don't project to make it to the NHL but overall I certainly wouldn't judge this year to be a poor year development wise for Oilers prospects.

Zona's overall negative evaluation of Oilers prospects using NHLE is somewhat misguided given that a lot of the forwards drafted were not drafted to be top 6 guys so their NHLE for a bottom 6 role is actually decent. Also there are a number of forwards and defensemen who are in their first year pro or their first year in a tougher league so their NHLE would be expected to be lower than other more experienced players in their respective leagues. Not to mention there are a bunch of players in there who are expected to shut down other teams' top lines and are performing well in that capacity. Clearly some players don't project to make it to the NHL but overall I certainly wouldn't judge this year to be a poor year development wise for Oilers prospects.

I would put very little stock into the NHLE numbers. This is far from an exact science.

It is pretty easy to predict that a prospect will not score a lot in his first year or so. But trying to linearly order prospects by their NHLE is really stretching things as far as I am concerned.

I would put very little stock into the NHLE numbers. This is far from an exact science.

It is pretty easy to predict that a prospect will not score a lot in his first year or so. But trying to linearly order prospects by their NHLE is really stretching things as far as I am concerned.

I like NHLE's, I think it's an interesting idea. While it obviously has its flaws I find it really intriguing to compare players who fail to live up to their NHLEs and ask why they did. Whether it's a player with certain qualities, the situation their in, or just random.

What??? The only reason Simpson comes up even is because of contract status... other wise we would keep him and let the D slot machine come up as it does... Laleggia is one of the best puck movers in the entire NCAA (13th among all skaters in points in NCHC)... no sense in trading a maybe future Brian Rafalski...

Que? Simpson is definitely better prospect than Laleggia is. Laleggia is small, offensively skilled defender who isn't good defensively. Simpson is big, offensively skilled defender who is great defensively. If we need to trade one D prospect and MacT trades Simpson I'm going to be mad as hell.

Sadly I haven't seen our college forwards so I'm not going to rank them. I've heard good things about Kellen Jones though. I'm going to do much longer write-ups of our prospects but I don't know if I have time/patience to translate it from Finnish.